Come you all! Here,
the Father’s Heart is alive
John’s Gospel, chap. 12, verses 44-50
Solemn Feast of the Father’s Heart
December 2, 2018
Homily of the Pontiff Samuel
(Draft)
Today we live this solemn feast in honour of the Father’s Heart. An important feast that this Church has set up at the end of the liturgical year, to deepen more and more the Mystery of this Live and Holy Father, who is present in this Land of Love, in this Abode of His Love, where His Heart beats and is alive.
Great is the Mystery of the Father’s manifestation in history. It’s a Mystery that accompanies us over the centuries as in the same way has accompanied the journey of God’s sons who continue this journey to reach the final goal and so to arrive to His Fatherly Heart, that here, in this Land of Love, has placed His Home among men: here is the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:2), announced and prophesied but not understood, and now we are called on to live it so to understand this great Mystery, inscrutable and inaccessible to human mind, but that the Father is making us experience.
Here is where the Father has made His Home (Rev 21:3), as He had promised. Metaphysical Home where the contact with His Heart is lived, where the heartbeat of His Fatherly Heart is heard. A living heartbeat, which can be understood and heard as much more one approaches with a sincere heart this Living Tabernacle, the Little Cradle of Baby Jesus, where God’s Heart beats, where the Heart of this Divine Child beats, who descended from Heaven (Mt 26:64; Mk 14:62) to feed His people forever. Here is the journey traced by the Father for all His sons.
And we are here today to shout‑out our joy to the whole world, wanting to honour the Heart of this Father, now and forever, so that many may recognize the Goodness of this Father (Ps 26:3; Lk 1:78; Tit 3:4-5). Not only to see Him as the Father who judges and condemns, but as that good Father who loves His sons (Ps 25:5; 51:3; 69:14). It’s not the Father who condemns the sons; it’s the sins of men that cause the condemnation of themselves, that kill the souls of these sons. It’s not the Father. As Jesus tells us in this passage: «I have not come to condemn you, but to save you. It’s My very word that will judge you, and this word does not come from Me, but from the One who sent Me: the Father» (Jn 12:47-49).
Here is then that all those who listen to this word, putting it into practice will be saved (Jn 5:24). Those who, by virtue of the freedom given by the Father to everyone, will not want to hear this word, will not want to keep the commandments and God’s teachings, will be condemned. It’s they that will condemn themselves. It’s not the Father who condemns: the Father, in the Son, saves (Heb 5:8-10). This is the difference.
Here is then that today we want to give joy to the Father. Again we want to give our life to this Father. “To you Heavenly Father we offer our lives”, this we have just prayed together. This we want to do today and forever, so that everyone may understand the Goodness of this Father who has never been truly understood throughout history.
Ever since He manifested Himself by a Sound of thunder (Ex 19:18-19), giving His messenger those Holy laws (Ex 24:12; Dt 10:4), that were to bring order back in a historical period where disorder reigned, where God was no longer the primary Good, where the Law of God was no longer at the centre of every man’s life, but where everyone made his own law for his own benefit.
So the Father who, through that messenger, gives His Word, His Laws, His Commandment (Ex 20:1-7; Dt 5:6-21), to restore order.
Many have been the messengers sent by the Father throughout history, who prophesied announcing the Father’s Will, but no one really listened to them (Mt 23:37; Lk 13:34). Here is then that the Father sent a part of His Heart to manifest Love (1Jn 4:9-10), to manifest the Commandment of Love (Mt 27:37-40). Here is then that the Father for the first time manifests Himself, a part of His Heart, in that Man‑God, Jesus, to recapitulate everything (Eph 1:9-10), so to make all and everyone restart in His Love, which was donated by means of that Son. Many have listened to the voice of that Son, others have moved away.
Over time, thanks to the Word pronounced by the Son (Jn 1:14), many have approached that Love, manifesting and putting those teachings into practice; but as time passed, men have turned away from the Father’s Law again. And over time, the leaders of that house that were supposed to bring to everyone the originality of God’s Word, have instead preferred their own law, their own teachings, which have diverted the sons’ hearts from the Father’s Heart, drawing the Father away from His sons, creating a distance between the Father and the sons, managing God’s Name as a power. This was not the will of the Father, who sent His Son to shorten the distances, so that everyone could see that good and holy Father as a God close to them (Jn 12:44-45), a God of Love, who does not come to judge and condemn, but who comes to love. Brother among the brothers, Friend, Master, Man-God.
Once again the hearts of men have moved away from the Father’s Heart. The messengers sent in history by the Father, have tried, guided by the Holy Spirit, to bring that house to the original Thought of the Father. Many have been the messengers sent in history, but they were never fully heard. Here is then that the Father in His infinite Mercy has again recapitulated everything, sending again a part of Himself, of His Heart, here, in this Land of Love, for having found a pure, holy little heart that has been able to contain His Love. God’s Love contained in the heart of a Maiden – here She is – She who has known how to contain this Love and how to spread It; She did not keep It for Herself, She gave It to all those who the Spirit has sent, sends and will send over time.
Here is the Cradle of Love, Tabernacle of God’s Love, of the Father’s Love, where a Child’s Heart beats. This is the time we are living, in which we are to restore order again, through this Mother Church, in a disordered world that has moved away from God’s Law. Here is the historical time we are living. Guided by the action of God’s Spirit, this Church rises to restore order and holiness, to bring the sons’ hearts back to the Father’s Heart, to bring back to the centre the one only primary good: God; so that the laws that men have set up over time and betimes, making use and abusing God’s Name, are swept away so to put back at the centre the one only Law, the Law of Love, the Law of Jesus, His Commandment (Mt 27:37-40), the Father’s Commandments (Ex 20:1-7; Dt 5:6-21). Only in this way the Father’s Heart will be reconciled with the hearts of His sons. Once this is done, the sons will be able to see the Father’s Goodness again: to live It, touch It by hand and, as many of them gradually flock to the Little Cradle of Baby Jesus, they will contemplate His Face (Ps 27:13). Whoever sees Jesus sees the Father, it is written; whoever sees his brother in the Son’s Face, sees the Father (Jn 12:45).
Here is that, in this Church, brotherhood returns to be the centre, because only in this way it will be possible to reconcile the sons’ hearts with the Heart of this good and holy Father. This is the Mystery of the New Jerusalem, metaphysical Home of the Father, where His Heart beats, where the Heart of this Divine Child is alive, called to gather all peoples, so that all nations may recognize the eternal Saviour in Christ. And in the moment in which everyone will recognize Him and will adore Him as God, Peace will be stable on Earth, as the Father has promised (Is 9:6; Rm 14,17; Rev 21:4).
So we continue our journey, confident and proud, in the certainty that, as the Mother of God revealed to Her Maiden, whoever takes those hands has already undertaken the journey that leads to the Father’s Heart. Here is the people on their journey that, following the example of this Maiden and having taken and holding tightly Her hands, continue this journey to reach the Father’s Heart, the target and fulfilment of everything.
This is the faith of this Church. This is the faith of the sons who live this Church, Mystical Body of Christ, so to bring Love back to the centre: Christ, Jesus Christ, the only Love that saves (Acts 4:11-12); and to wipe away every other kind of love that does not lead to Salvation.
In Christ everything is being fulfilled. This is our journey. We remain united in prayer and fraternal union and we thank the Father for having called us to work in His Vineyard (Mt 20:1-7), so to be able to thank the Father every day for the grace received, wanting to renew every day our “yes”, so that the call we received may bear fruit in plenty (Jn 15:4-5); and not in appearances. This is what Jesus asked us through this Maiden and this is what we will do, whatever the cost, completing our journey to glorify and give honour to the Heart of this Father, for ever and ever.
And so be it.
